On 8th May 1945 the nation ‘let its hair down’ and celebrated the end of the war in Europe. Today we mark the 75th Anniversary of VE Day. Not the flamboyant celebrations that were planned, they were set aside rightly when the current pandemic hit, but mark it we will in our own ways and together in spirit.
My dad, as did many others fathers, fought in WW2, he survived (albeit with a gash in his side from shrapnel) many didn’t. Today is as much about remembering them and their sacrifice as it is anything else.
What I can’t attribute to my dad is the phrase ‘lived to tell the tale’ not because of any medical (physical) issue, but like a vast number of survivors he never did recount his tales of life in battle. It’s not that I didn’t ask, but all I know is that he operated a 2” mortar and that he was in the Argyle Sutherland’s.
I do know he had a passion to remember comrades that fell and those that survived, he never missed a Remembrance Day, whether it was actually at a war memorial, or watching on TV. Every year the tears flowed as he saluted the unknown soldier.
So today although I can’t attend the local celebrations and mark the anniversary as was planned, I like others will be ‘letting my hair down’ (quite literally at the moment with the current lockdown!!) but also I will be remembering my dad, his tears and passion to remember fallen comrades and their sacrifice so that we can have the chance to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day…
However you are marking the day, have fun, celebrate as others did in 1945, put out your bunting… I guess it’s what those who didn’t make it would have wanted, what they fought for and a tribute to them as much as freedom itself.
Rob's View (from the sidelines) 